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Thursday, 20 June 2013

How do you ask "Europe - yes or no?"

The proposed question for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU has been published today, over on Guido Fawkes's blog.

What interests me is that the wording has changed subtly in the final draft, from:

“Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?”

To:

“Do you think that the United Kingdom should be a member of the European Union?”

Now as a eurosceptic Tory, why might you want to do that?

It's for the same reason that Alex Salmond was very keen on a certain wording for the Scottish Independence Referendum.

The first question's wording above, has an element of "status quo bias", which has nothing to do with three chord rock songs and everything to do with the fact that survey respondents will tend to agree that things should stay the same as they are now, if you encourage them to do that.

The UK should remain a member of the EU.

vs. the UK should be a member of the EU.

Subtle difference, but if you're a politician chasing votes for your own point of view, you'll grab every little advantage you can get. It's very hard to write a completely neutral question, so you might as well have the one that favours your own position!

Still, at least we can hope that this referendum won't be carried out by Premier Inn.